Sable laid a hand on his arm, and that was the only thing that saved the lad from Atreides right then and there. He had the gall to talk about the world being broken, like no one else realized that? The Taskmage knew the world was broken, far worse than any of these kiddies probably realized, and they had the gall to talk that kind of game. Before she drug him off, Atreides walked over and loomed over the kid, single eye glaring coldly down at the barely standing lad, his presence oppressing and ominous. The man was easily taller and held a far more focused, cold, unyielding anger at the hubris and blind pride the boy just threw in his face.

[color=0072bc]"So, you think you know how bad the world is broken, eh kiddie? Triple whatever you are thinking, and you might have a fraction of it right. This world is doomed, and every fragment of it doomed. I've seen it far clearer then anything you could conjure up in your wildest, most horrific nightmare. So don't go preaching to me about how the world's broken, [i]kid[/i], unless you've really seen how bad it is. Lucky you though, you heard the lady. Relic's yours for now. And save your damn threats for someone you can actually keep up with, and can give enough of a shit about whatever you think you are. Because no matter how big, how bad, and how tough you think you are, there's always someone bigger, badder, and tougher than you. Might be me, might not be me, might never meet them, might meet them today. But there is someone. So watch your tongue, or someone with less restraint will rip it out, just. Like. That."[/color]

Within the blink of an eye, Atreides snapped his hand within an inch of the kid's throat, and let loose a harsh, barking laugh as he turned and strode away, every movement seeming to taunt and insult the kiddie. Even the coat's billowing in the breeze seemed to invite him to try and prove him wrong. The Taskmage was too tired, too old compared to the rest of this lot to put up with this kind of crap, and if it wasn't for Sable intervening, he would have shown the kid how deep he was almost in. Five minutes, at worse, he rated the kid lasting. If he was unusually talented, maybe. But he vanished into the woods after Sable, catching up in time to hear her comment, and he grunted, rotating his shoulder.

[color=0072bc]"Hearing voices already, Meat? You can't be that old yet, or I'm far blinder than I realized. But seriously, what did this voice say?"[/color]

Atreides smirked, following up his humor with something more serious and on topic, letting her take the lead with however she wanted to approach this situation that she was dealing with it.